Overhead light suspension hanger

ABSTRACT

This abstract describes a vertically adjustable appliance support device, such as those which are used in television studios for the support of lighting fixtures, etc. The device comprises a housing which can be removably clamped to a support pipe hanging from the ceiling of the studio. There is a vertically adjustable elongated member or arm which passes through aligned openings in the top and bottom walls of the housing. The lower end of the arm includes fastening means to which appliances of various sorts such as lighting fixtures can be attached. Inside the housing is a locking means which comprises a hinged plate supported on the bottom surface of the housing, and urged downwardly by means of a helical spring pressing between the locking means and the top surface of the housing. The locking means presses against the vertically adjustable elongated member or arm and prevents its downward movement. To release the locking member the arm is pushed to the side so that the angle between the locking member and the arm is now less than a value which is required to provide the locking feature. At this smaller angle the arm is capable of sliding down or up and therefore can be quickly adjusted to any desired position.

United States Patent [1 1 Newton, ll et al.

[ Aug. 27, 1974 i 1 OVERHEAD LIGHT SUSPENSION HANGER 22 Filed: Feb. 20, 1973 211 App]. No.: 334,123

Primary Examiner-J. Franklin Foss Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Head and Johnson [57] ABSTRACT This abstract describes a vertically adjustable appliance support device, such as those which are used in television studios for the support of lighting fixtures, etc. The device comprises a housing which can be removably clamped to a support pipe hanging from the ceiling of the studio. There is a vertically adjustable elongated member or arm which passes through aligned openings in the top and bottom walls of the housing. The lower end of the arm includes fastening means to which appliances of various sorts such as lighting fixtures can be attached.

Inside the housing is a locking means which comprises a hinged plate supported on the bottom surface of the housing, and urged downwardly by means of a helical spring pressing between the locking means and the top surface of the housing. The locking means presses against the vertically adjustable elongated member or arm and prevents its downward movement. To release the locking member the arm is pushed to the side so that the angle between the locking member and the arm is now less than a value which is required to provide the locking feature. At this smaller angle the arm is capable of sliding down or up and therefore can be quickly adjusted to any desired position.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures T N EW 3.881.894 WET ill 2 OVERHEAD LIGHT SUSPENSION HANGER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention lies in the field of vertically adjustable appliance supports. More particularly, it comprises a means for rapid vertically adjusted support means for appliances such as lighting fixtures in a television studio, for example.

In the prior art there are many designs of appliance support fixtures. In general, however, each of these require a separately operated clamping means so that in adjusting the vertical position of the fixture it must be grasped in one hand and the locking means grasped in the other hand so that when the locking means is released the fixture will not drop to the floor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a principal object of this invention to provide a vertically adjustable fixture for supporting appliances of one sort or another at various vertical positions. More particularly it is an object of this invention to provide a vertical support arm that can be grasped in one hand and moved freely up and down simply by shifting the vertical arm to the side, to release the locking means in which position it is free to move up and down. Then by moving the arm to a full vertical position, the locking feature takes control and prevents the downward movement of the arm.

This and other objects are realized and other limitations of the prior art are overcome in this invention by the use of a housing which is clamped to a support member attached to the ceiling. A vertically adjustable arm is inserted through the housing, through vertically aligned openings in the top and bottom surfaces of the housing. The bottom opening is elongated in a transverse direction. A locking member is hinged to the bottom surface inside the housing and is urged downwardly by a spring so that the locking edges, which are in the form of a V notch, are at an angle to the elongated member such that under the pressure of the spring the locking member will grip the edge of the elongated member and prevent its movement downwardly.

When the elongated member is pushed to the side (toward the locking member) by means of the slot in the bottom surface, the angle between the locking member and the elongated member is now less than the critical value required to obtain locking action. Therefore the arm is now free to move downwardly as desired. Thus, an operator can grasp the bottom end of the arm with one hand, and by pushing it to the side, he releases the locking member and then can lower the arm to any desired position. The action of the locking member is such that the elongated member can be pushed upwardly without resistance at a time. Thus the operator with one hand can control the position of the support arm and with the other hand can be doing other necessary simultaneous actions. This use of a single hand for unlocking and moving the support member is not shown in the prior art. Furthermore the arm can be a tube and the electrical cord supplying power to the appliance hanging from the lower end of the arm can pass through the internal conduit of the tubular arm.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects of this invention and a better understanding of the principles and details of this invention will be evident from the following description taken in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 show two side views of the complete apparatus.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show sectional views of the housing.

FIG. 5 shows a detail of the clamping means.

FIG. 6 shows a view of the overall assembly of this invention in a typical application in a television studio.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 show two views of the assembly of this invention. It comprises a housing which is a closed metal box, which has a C clamp attached to its top surface by means of which the housing can be clamped to a support bar which is supported from the ceiling of the room in which it is to be used. This is shown in a schematic way in FIG. 6 in which the housing 10 is clamped by means 24 to a horizontal pipe 52 which is supported by vertical members 50 from a structure 58 attached to the ceiling 56 of the room in which this device is to be used.

There is a vertically adjustable elongated member 12 which can be called a vertical arm. This can be a solid rod or a tube. It is preferably a tube, as shown in FIG. 5. The cross section can be square as shown in FIG. 5 or rectangular or round as may be desired. There are two openings 30 in the upper surface 36 (FIG. 3) and 32 in the lower surface 38 of the housing 10. The lower openings 32 is elongated and has a. portion 34 to permit sideways movement of the arm 12 at the lower opening. This sideways movement at the lower end tilts the arm 12 as shown by the dashed line 12. Inside the housing is a hinged strap 41 which is adjustably fastened by part 42 to the bottom surface 38 by means of bolts 44. The locking member or blade 40 is welded to the strap 41, and can move upwardly as shown by the dashed line 40 but is urged downwardly by the spring 48.

In order to have a locking feature, the blade 40 must make an angle with the arm 12 indicated by A which is greater than a minimum value. If the angle is greater than this minimum value the blade will lock the downward movement of the arm 12. When this angle A is less than the minimum value, it will not lock and therefore the arm I2 can be released from the locking feature and can be moved freely up and down. It will be clear that when thelocking blade 40 is in the position shown and the angle A is greater than the minimum, then the arm 12 will be locked and its downward movement will be prevented. However, by moving the lower end of the arm 12 to the left as shown by the dashed lines 12' the locking blade 40 is raised to the position 40' and the angle between the locking blade and the arm 12 is now A, which is less than the required angle for locking. The arm 12 is now capable of freely moving downward. To adjust the vertical position of the arm 12, the operator can grasp the lower end of the arm 12, push it to the side, and lower it to the desired level then push it back to a vertical position where it will again be clamped by the locking blade 40. The end of the blade 40 is in the shape of a V notch so as to better clamp and bite into the surface of the arm 12.

Short pieces of rubber tubing 18 and 20 are provided on the top and bottom end of the arm 12 as bumpers to prevent damage when the arm is raised or lowered rapidly to its limiting position.

The lower end of the arm 12 carries a U-shaped member 14 which supports a horizontal rod or pipe 16, to which may be clamped fixtures of one sort or another such as the lamp fixtures 54 shown in FIG. 6.

It is clear that by loosening the screw 26 the clamping means 24 attached to the housing can be slid along the pipe 52 to any desired position. A safety cord 28 can, of course, be provided to loop around the pipe 52 and prevent the dropping of the entire apparatus in case the clamp 24 should slip off the pipe 52.

The electrical cord 22 that is used to supply power to the fixtures 54 can be inserted down through the top end of the arm 12 and through the tubing to the bottom where it can be attached to the lighting fixtures.

While the arm has been described as a square tubing it is clear that it can be a solid rod as well as a tubing, and may be of any desired cross section such as square, rectangular or circular provided the openings 30 and 32 are of appropriate shape. Also the length of the bottom opening 32, 34, should be such that the angle A is less than the locking angle so as to permit downward movement of the arm 12.

While the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity it is manifest that many changes may be made in the details of construction and the arrangement of components. It is understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments set forth herein by way of exemplifying the invention, but the invention is to be limited only by the scope of the attached claim or claims, including the full range of equivalency to which each element or step thereof is entitled.

What is claimed:

l. A vertically adjustable appliance support means comprising:

a. a housing including means to removably clamp said housing to an upper support element;

b. a vertically adjustable elongated means passing through aligned openings in the top and bottom of said housing;

c. hinged locking means inside said housing and normally urged downwardly by a spring means, said locking means having an engagable face at its free end which presses against said elongated means, the angle between said locking means and said elongated means greater than a selected angle A, whereby said locking means will grip said elongated means and prevent its downward movement; and

(1. said opening at said bottom of said housing elongated in the direction towards said locking means to permit canting said elongated means from the aligned vertical position so as to decrease said angle to a value less than said selected angle A, whereby said locking means will not grip said elongated means and will permit vertical movement.

2. The support means as in claim 1 including appliance support means on the lower end of said elongated means, said elongated means comprising tubular means.

3. The support means as in claim 2 including electrical conductor means passing through said tubular means for attachment to said appliance.

4. The support means as in claim 1 in which said tubbular means is square tubing. 

1. A vertically adjustable appliance support means comprising: a. a housing including means to removably clamp said housing to an upper support element; b. a vertically adjustable elongated means passing through aligned openings in the top and bottom of said housing; c. hinged locking means inside said housing and normally urged downwardly by a spring means, said locking means having an engagable face at its free end which presses against said elongated means, the angle between said locking means and said elongated means greater than a selected angle ''''A,'''' whereby said locking means will grip said elongated means and prevent its downward movement; and d. said opening at said bottom of said housing elongated in the direction towards said locking means to permit canting said elongated means from the aligned vertical position so as to decrease said angle to a value less than said selected angle ''''A,'''' whereby said locking means will not grip said elongated means and will permit vertical movement.
 2. The support means as in claim 1 including appliance support means on the lower end of said elongated means, said elongated means comprising tubular means.
 3. The support means as in claim 2 including electrical conductor means passing through said tubular means for attachment to said appliance.
 4. The support means as in claim 1 in which said tubbular means is square tubing. 